Wedding bills: Korean couples spend over 200 million won to get married, survey finds

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Wedding bills: Korean couples spend over 200 million won to get married, survey finds

An employee arranges stacks of 50,000-won ($34) bank notes at Hana Bank's Counterfeit Notes Response Center in Jung District, central Seoul, on July 17, 2024. [NEWS1]

An employee arranges stacks of 50,000-won ($34) bank notes at Hana Bank's Counterfeit Notes Response Center in Jung District, central Seoul, on July 17, 2024. [NEWS1]

 
Koreans on average are spending more than 200 million won ($136,724) on getting married, including housing, and feel their retirement savings are sufficient only when the amount reaches nearly 2 billion won, a survey found Wednesday.
 
Hana Bank’s Hana Institute of Finance released its annual consumer trend report on financial services based on an online survey of 5,000 financial consumers aged between 20 and 64 living in Seoul or its surrounding regions.
 

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According to the report, newlyweds married within the past three years spent an average of 206.35 million won on marriage expenses, which include housing and wedding costs. Couples who are planning to get married expected to pay around 225.41 million won, indicating that marriage expenses are increasing by about 10 million won per year.
 
The report also found that individuals planning or willing to get married tend to be more aggressive in their investment approach, with a higher likelihood of investing in stocks and other investment products compared to those reluctant to get married.
 
On the other hand, individuals who plan to remain single tend to prefer insurance products in their financial spending.
 
Reflecting the rising burden of marriage expenses, six out of 10 individuals took out loans to afford the cost — with four of them using loans to cover more than half of their budget.
 
Meanwhile, nine out of 10 married couples said that they hadn’t saved enough for retirement despite holding an average of 700 million won in total assets per household. They expected to save an additional 200 million won before retirement.
 
In contrast, couples who believed their preparation for retirement was sufficient had assets worth 1.86 billion won on average.
 
Last year, the average amount of financial assets held per person grew more steeply compared to the pandemic era, rising from 90.04 million won in 2022 and 90.49 million won in 2023 to 101.78 million won last year.
 
Consumers are increasingly leaning toward investing over saving this year, continuing the trend from the previous year when central banks began to reduce their base rates, according to the report.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [[email protected]]
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